I'm not making a value judgement on rendering strategies, spa, etc. I'm arguing that for most js frameworks, building a full stack app with your own database, auth, etc without third party services is not the happy path. These are table stakes in php, ruby, and python. There are exceptions like remix. I'm just deriding a general trend.
As i understand you guys, you're talking about the difference between writing an API server vs writing a web app, that delivers the view, instead of an API. What exactly makes one leave the happy path? Using a template language?